DIVIDED WE FALL Purvis Young - Marcus Jansen
DIVIDED WE FALL July 22 - August 22, 2020
822 East Las Olas Boulevard | Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
“No one is free until we are all free.” -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Contents Foreword: 4 - 5 The Art of Marcus JaNSEN: 7 & 10 - 27 Marcus JaNSEN Biography: 8 - 9 The Art of Purvis Young: 29 - 30 & 32 - 65 Purvis Young Biography: 31
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Purvis Young – Marcus Jansen “Divided We Fall” “The Movement is radically opposed to any concept of the artist that alienates him from his community.” – African American Scholar and Poet, Larry Neal (1)
Recent social and political events centered around accusations of racism and civil unrest have divided us as a nation. This domestic instability has triggered an inner reflection on perceptions of where we are as a country and a community, how far we have come, and where to go from here. Indeed, irrefutable progress has been made over the past decades in many outdated societal norms, but we still have far to go to attain an encompassing sense of diversity and inclusion; one that does not alienate, suppress, and fractionalize. Historically, progress against the social injustice of all types has often been preceded by an event or series of events - catalysts, that have sparked public protests and an outcry to do more. Are 2020’s events an impetus for activism and change? Artists and their art can become guiding beacons for constructive dialogue. When protests, riots, looting, tumbling monuments and shouts for reform disrupt our community, cloud our vision, and distort our civil intentions, Purvis Young and Marcus Jansen, two African American artists, bring forth artistic narratives that move us in a new direction - one of clarity that is intended to spark introspection and suggest there is an alternative path forward. “Divided We Fall”, a curated art exhibition at New River Fine Art featuring artwork by Purvis Young and Marcus Jansen, addresses themes of racial inequality and urban identity, juxtaposed with capitalist paradigms. Both artists have lived and thrived in these modern-day times of cultural divides. Although from different generations, Young and Jansen have experienced irrefutable racial inequalities and prejudices firsthand. Their artwork expresses literal, as well as metaphysical, allegories of social injustice and issues of race, but in very distinct and unique ways. Theirs is a cautionary tale stretching from influences of our nation’s past and an understanding of current policies. It seems that in today’s political landscape, an argument can be made that the respect for someone else’s belief and the ability to intellectually debate differences of opinions has been lost. Young and Jansen courageously stand strong and use their artistic voices to narrate new directions for social discourse. With their unique and signatory artistic aesthetics, they become visual ambassadors to our international political
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and social disputes. They bring unbridled attention to political and societal issues that continue to haunt our collective psyche, moving beyond the erroneous and polarizing tendencies of the nation’s political parties. Purvis Young unequivocally expressed societal and racial issues, serving as an early activist through his art – thoughtfully dissecting politics and bureaucracy. Originally labeled as an Outsider artist for his lack of formal art education, Contemporary collectors now consider him a pioneer and early forefather to the Street Art movement. He utilized a new type of urban storytelling, employing a graphic tale that is unique, fresh, and raw - often coined Urban or Social Expressionism. Marcus Jansen, on the other hand, paints politically charged abstracted landscapes that dive deep into the dismal chasm of capitalist intrigues, urban decay, and unnerved introspections weighted down with Post-Traumatic Stresses. Utilizing paint, canvas, and mixed media installations, he reveals to us the corrupt structures of power, inequalities of economic opportunities, and the changing environment. Young and Jansen use their artistic voices as munitions in an effort to encourage thoughtful discussion, promote effective dialogue and bring vision to the country’s critical issues. One thing is indisputable, their art enables us to look through the lens of history and encourages us to contemplate the present while permitting us to dream of a united future. - Lisa Burgess
1. What Revolution Looks Like: The Work of Black Panther Artist Emory Douglas, Reprinted and republished in Black Panther; The Revolutionary Arts of Emory Douglas, Rizzoli Publishing, pg. 98.
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Marcus Jansen
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Monument Wars #1 2020 48 x 48 in Oil enamel, mixed media on canvas
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Biography Marcus Jansen (b. 1968) Marcus Jansen, an internationally acclaimed contemporary American artist, was born in New York City to a Jamaican/West Indies mother and a German father, a dual heritage that would deeply influence racial biases and prejudices experienced in his younger years. Being from separate generations, Jansen was but only a toddler when Purvis Young was already selling his art and making a name for himself in the dangerously ghettoized area of Goodbread Alley; already speaking to the drastic needs for change and political shifts. However, there are distinct similarities as well as differences that conceptually tie their work together. As a young child, Jansen first resided in the late 1960’s in the South Bronx but later relocated to Germany from New York, as per his father’s directive, in an attempt and hope that the Jansen family would not be subject to the political and racial biases of a mixed-race marriage during the 70’s and 80’s. However, this was not the case. Jansen experienced racism firsthand in America as well as in Germany, often being bullied and beat up in racially motivated assaults while walking to school. Returning to New York in the late 80’s on visits, Jansen was influenced by the Graffiti movement and was intune with the conceptual beginnings of the subcultural Hip Hop Movement and counterculture fashions within the dominantly African American as well as the Caribbean and Puerto Rican immigrant populations. In the 90’s, as an actively deployed serviceman during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield, Jansen saw the destructive absurdity inflicted upon the sovereign populations within the Middle East. His eventual military discharge left him a unique and worldly outlook on contemporary politics coupled with a formal diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a direct result of the destruction and obliteration he witnessed in those times of war. “…The public was being deceived about how “smart” the bombs being dropped on Iraq towns were…. perhaps 40 percent of the laser-guided bombs dropped in Operation Desert Storm missed their targets.” -Howard Zinn, discussing aspects of Operation Desert Storm (3) As seen in his artwork, Jansen pulls from various stages of his personal development to arrive at the heavily coded and symbolic interpretations in conjectural environments. Residing in New York, he saw the injustice, strife, and struggle of growing up of color in the inner city. As an artist, he visually portrays corrupt structures of power and the imbalance of economic opportunity among the classes. Today, critics and museums are taking notice of Jansen’s work. 8 - DIVIDED WE FALL
“In a civilized society, the society is forced to renounce instinctive behavior; it is up to the artist to bring it to the surface in reasonable ways.” -M. Jansen (4) “Tent City #7”, by Jansen is a mostly black and alien green painting that haunts the viewer with a melancholy essence of nightmarish loneliness and abandonment. Broken up into geometric formations, Jansen formulates a calculated conundrum, segmented from left to right, triangles press onto rectangles, forming a hard edge puzzle that speaks volumes to unanswered questions more than visible answers. Graffiti elements glow fiercely from the shadowy undefined perimeters. Painted portraits and bodily outlines exist as indeterminate subjects, vanishing into the void, forgotten remnants within the ever-expanding background - lost and neglected. Sections of fencing on the top left keep the viewer at bay, allowing neither familiarity nor consoling. In “Tent City #7”, the darkened emptiness is the solitude, distraction, and solace for the suffering – those failed by a system that crushes them from every direction, entities appealing to no one but to the stars above. “Revolutionary Elites”, a seemingly whitewashed portrait of an autocrat hammers home the current tensions stemming from the order Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues. Were these people “revolutionary” or simply elites? Are both possible? Monuments have been torn down, and previous leaders glorified in bronze have tumbled. Felled not by pacifists, but by those taking a stand while the debate rages on over whether an egregious flaw from a different time negates a historical leader’s stature as “hero”. Elegant in a burgundy nobleman’s waistcoat and ghostly powdered white wig, our subject is convened only with himself. Identity erased and clad in clown’s makeup; the ruler is but a buffoon, a mere mockery in his perceived powers and expunged by paint and artistic gesture. Does removing history from our public squares and texts cancel out our flawed past or simply whitewash over that from which we may learn? Jansen, giving visual voice to nuances of the past with nods to authoritarians of atrocities, sees the past but recognizes the present and hopes for the future. Jansen’s public collections include the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Perm Museum of Contemporary Art, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Housatonic Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. 3. A People’s History of the United States: Volume II The Civil War to the Present, Howard Zinn, Pgs. 308-309. 4. Retrieved, July 2, 2020, https://www.marcusjansen.com/story.htm
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Monument Wars #7 2020 48 x 60 IN Oil enamels and mixed media on canvas
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Fallen Statue #1 2020 48 x 48 IN Oil enamels and mixed media on canvas
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Fallen Statue #3 2020 48 x 48 IN Oil enamels and mixed media on canvas
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Faceless MEMBER 51 2020 70 x 54 in Oil and mixed media on canvas 16 - DIVIDED WE FALL
Faceless MEMBER 50 2020 70 x 54 in Oil and mixed media on canvas PURVIS YOUNG & MARCUS JANSEN - 17
Revolutionary Elites 2016 108 x 88 in Oil enamels and mixed media on canvas
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Tent city #6 2020 48 x 60 IN Oil enamels and mixed media on canvas
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Urban Vernacular 2019 72 x 72 in Oil enamels, spray paint and oil pastel on canvas
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Tent city #7 2020 48 x 60 IN Oil enamels and mixed media on canvas
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Forgotten Bum 2016 9 x 12 in Oil enamel on paper
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Business On The Edge 2016 9 x 12 in Oil enamels and Marker on paper
When The Angels Come 2017 9 x 12 in Oil enamel on paper
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Purvis Young
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A Blessed Protest Circa 1989 48 x 33 in Paint on Canvas MOUNTED ON Wood PURVIS YOUNG & MARCUS JANSEN - 29
Watching Over Circa 1999 31.5 x 41.5 IN Paint on Wood Panels
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Biography Purvis Young (1943 – 2010) Young, a Black American born in Florida, lived through Miami’s 1960s race riots, was personally affected by the Civil Rights Movement, and the embodiments of the Black Power struggle. As an artist and as a citizen, he along with others in Miami, had major grievances, including deplorable housing conditions, economic exploitations, bleak employment prospects, racial discriminations, and poor police-community relations. Young was an artist living in a nation of unrest. He saw daily inequalities against the minority populations in the greater Miami area, as well as the nation. Young witnessed his Overtown, Florida neighborhood transform from a thriving community of black-owned businesses to a deteriorated economic blunder, courtesy of unfair wealth distribution attempts, and a misguided transportation and highway infrastructure. These problems, along with other municipal influences, lead to what he saw as inescapable inner-city deterioration. Heavily influenced by such deplorable circumstances, Young’s artwork, none the less, cuddled and caressed the destructive fodder and drew inspiration from the jaundiced viciousness. Protests, riots, unwed pregnant ladies, jail scenes, immigrants, angels, and Saints all play pivotal roles in Young’s visual portrayals of his immediate surroundings. “When I started with the figure painting, I liked to show good peoples, the heroes, like that. They fight for a cause. They done good things, they helped the struggle, you know. They are not necessarily just black peoples. I got good white peoples in my paintings… A lot of Quakers, jeopardizing their life, lost their lives trying to help black people against slavery.” – P. Young (2) “Warriors Together”, by Young sings loudly, reaching the mass protesters in today’s contemporary counterculture. His warriors are embarked on a long and steadfast journey as agents of change. Primitive renditions of people on horses, marchers, and troopers are on the move, aligning and pushing left. Our mind’s eye makes out the metaphysical struggles of a people, of poverty, and systematic strain. A painting mostly of monochromatic earth tones is accented by black and red markings. Young conceptually illustrates the sacrifices of a culture, where impoverishment demands retributions and justice. Red for blood, red for death and murder, red for the people. Black silhouettes give rise to otherworldly phantasms, heroes of the past that still provide voice to the needs of their people… The wants and demands for access to the necessities of life. An urban hieroglyphic narrative, “Warriors Together” pushes past the coded symbols that recount the past lives. They invite us, the viewer, to join in their cause. Personalized artifacts of discarded boards and wood form a frame around the painting. The people’s spirit is physically housed in their urban identity, real sculptural relics of the domains in which they guard, fight for, and raise families. “Free Them, Now” from the 1980’s is a powerful painting commemorating those who have been imprisoned and a celebration of the fight for justice. Five tiers of prisoners scramble to call out for reform, clinging and clanging at their bars. We can almost hear their hymns. A haloed head of a figure on the right dominates the composition. A leader in a gold adornment, he sings out in feverish pitch. Such a simple painting transverses across generations. Poignant now for the unrelenting existences of racism in our privatized prison culture, it also resonates an unmistakable homage from slavery to Apartheid to mass incarcerations. Free them now, the demons of our previous mistakes, so that we might learn to move forward. Part Urban Shaman, part Inner-City Graphic Archivist, Young’s influence in artistically documenting the plight of the African American and minority populations of the nation is undeniable. His work is held in over 60 museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; The DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA. 2. Retrieved, July 2, 2020, https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/artist/purvis-young, Taken from interviews with Purvis Young by William Arnett and Larry Clemons in 1994 and 1995.
A Day of Protests Circa 1999 14 x 74.25 IN Paint on Wood Panel
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Behind Bars Circa 1999 26 x 19 in Paint on Metal baking Tray
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Battle for Freedom Circa 1990 48 x 35 in Paint on Wood Panel with wood frame
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Chained to the past Circa 1999 33 x 47 in Paint on Wood Panels
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Choir Circa 1995 34 x 48 in Paint on Canvas MOUNTED ON wood
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Funeral in the Afternoon Circa 1999 10.5 x 48 in Paint on Wood Panel
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GOOD MAN CHAINED TO VICES Circa 1999 41.5 x 20 in Paint on Wood Panels
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Protest in the Morning Circa 1999 35.5 x 20 in Paint on Canvas MOUNTED ON Wood with carpet frame
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Sunset Delivery Circa 1999 37 x 21.5 in Paint on Wood panel
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March for Freedom Circa 1999 24 x 48 in Paint on Plastic Panel
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Peace After Battle Circa 1999 41 x 41 in Paint on Wood Panel
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Protesting the past Circa 1999 24 x 48 in Paint on Plastic Panel with carpet border
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Ready To Go Circa 1999 46.5 x 11.5 in Paint on Wood panel
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The Blessed Rescue Circa 1990’S 41 x 50 in Paint on WOOD PANEL
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Sailing to Freedom Circa 1990 48.5 x 32 in Paint on WOOD PANEL with Carpet
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THE POLICE AND THE PROTESTERS Circa 1993 23 x 24 IN Paint on Wood panel
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TOTEM: LIFE IN THE CITY Circa 1990 22 x 96 IN Paint on Wood panels
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Free Them, Now Circa 1980’s 36 x 36 IN Paint on Wood panel
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Song of Peace She’s Singin Man Circa 1995 42 x 42 IN Paint on Wood panel
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822 East Las Olas Boulevard | Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 newriverfineart.com | 954.524.2100
DIVIDED WE FALL
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Pu rv i s Y ou ng and M ar cu s J an s e n
822 East Las Olas Boulevard | Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 newriverfineart.com | 954.524.2100